Family Activities
by bellagill92
Summary: Erza and Jellal had nothing but good reasons to be so late at decorating the Christmas Tree.


**A/N: Well, this comes a bit late but Jerza seems to love torturing me with Christmassy plot bunnies after Christmas...**

**24 December x794**

"I think this area needs something sparkly in it," Erza stated, gesturing at a small section of the Christmas tree, which looked generally devoid of ornaments.

"I'll see if I find something like that in the box after I hang these two," Jellal told her, reaching to place two baubles near the very top of the tree as, being the taller one, that whole section had gotten assigned to him.

Erza took one step back to get a better perspective of the tree in order to give it a once-over. "It's starting to look good now that we are almost done," she commented before letting out a sigh. "I find it hard to believe we are only decorating the tree on Christmas Eve," she said, shaking her head, disappointed at their behavior.

Jellal chuckled while making his way to the box containing all the ornaments and kneeling down by it. "In our defense, we've been pretty busy," he pointed out. "In fact, you have the perfect excuse right there in your arms."

Smiling, Erza looked down. They did, indeed, have the perfect excuse, in the form of the tiny, blanket-wrapped newborn laying sleepily in the crook of her arm while grasping a handful of red hair. "Yes, Christmas did come early for us this year," she commented. He'd be turning ten days old on the following day, meaning he had come exactly one month before he was supposed to. An early, yet thankfully-heathy, surprise.

Looking up from the ornament box, Jellal's lips curled as he saw Erza smile down at their son. If he were petty, he might even feel a bit jealous about how in love she appeared to be with the little boy. Sighing, he forced himself to look away, back into the box in search for an appropriate ornament. Once he found one, he looked back up, showing it to his fiancée. "Is this one sparkly enough?"

She looked away from the baby and secured him on one arm, using the other to accept the object in question. "Yes, it's just what I had in mind," she said, approaching the tree to hang it on the branch she'd had in mind. Once she took a step back to see the effect, she frowned and approached it again, removing it and switching it up with another one a few inches away, a task achieved with some difficulty due to one of her arms being already fully occupied.

"You know, you can out him down for a second while we do this," Jellal pointed out. "His stroller is right over there."

She looked at him and frowned. "Christmas-tree-decoration is a family activity. Is our child not part of this family?"

Jellal didn't bother to point out that their son was a tad too little to know if he was being included or not – when Erza set her mind into something, changing it was practically an S-Class job. "Of course. My bad. Do you want me to hold him for a moment while you do your final inspection to the tree?" he suggested instead.

She pouted a little at the thought of letting go of the baby but, because it was Jellal, who had a right to hold his son too, and she trusted him with everything she had, she handed him over without a fight.

As he accepted the little boy into his arms, Jellal mused that, even though it had been over a week since he'd first held him, he still couldn't get over how light his son was. Every time he was placed in his arms, Jellal experienced a single moment of terror during which he counted how many different ways there were for him to break that child beyond repair, only to end it by vowing to himself never to let harm come to him. As for the baby in question, he seemed oblivious to anything other than stretching and moving around in an attempt to find himself a comfortable position. It must be quite simple, the mind of a newborn.

Near the tree, Erza finished her inspection in record time, quickly straightening crooked ornaments and adjusting misaligned stretches of garland – nothing like the previous year, in which she had nearly walked around with a ruler and a bubble level, looking obsessively for perfect symmetry in the tree – before going back to the company of her two favorite male specimens, who appeared to be bonding over the baby's unsuccessful attempt to circle his father's thumb with his little hand.

"Everything up to code?" Jellal asked playfully once she returned.

"Everything is perfect," she replied, smiling as her hand gently stroked the reddish fuzz on top of their son's head. "Seems like somebody's first Christmas Tree is all done."

"I'm not sure how much he'll be able to appreciate it," Jellal pointed out, handing the baby back to his mother. "Newborns are rather short-sighted, so he probably can't make out much more than the green and the shiny."

"It is still a milestone reached at nine days old! Certainly more than _other_ children can claim," Erza said, a familiar look of competitiveness on her face. Any milestone her son was able to reach before Mirajane's yet-unborn rugrats was a noteworthy victory, even those who were merely incidental.

Jellal sighed, shaking his head. "Can you and Mira please play nice at least on Christmas?" he asked, reading her mind.

"You speak as if we are _not_ playing nice. You might not want to ask around about the year Mira and I competed in our S-Class trials. If you find this competition anything more than mutual bantering, you will likely be shocked by the details of that showdown," Erza pointed out in a freakishly serene tone while rocking the yawning baby in her arms to sleep. "Mommy mopped the floor with Auntie Mira. Oh, yes she did."

Jellal's eyes widened as he started feeling a certain amount of alarm rise within him. He found it safer to end that conversation there before she deemed it okay to tell her newborn child the details of the fight in question. The baby was likely too young to understand but one never knew how much his subconscious would absorb. "Weren't you saying before that there were still a handful of gifts that needed wrapping? We should probably get to that now while he looks so ready for a nap…"

Erza sighed. "Yes, that might be wise," she had to agree. "And I should still go out and shop for a thing or two. I'm afraid _someone's_ impatience to come into this world didn't allow me to get you anything for Christmas."

Jellal frowned. "Didn't it? Because I could swear it was that impatience that allowed you to get me the best Christmas present I have ever received," he said, nodding down at the baby. "There's really nothing I could think of that would beat it."

She raised an eyebrow. "I heard somewhere that unwrapping Christmas gifts ahead of time is bad luck," she pointed out.

"Then it's a good thing that he wasn't wrapped up in the first place," he said in amusement. "We couldn't very well leave him quietly under the tree for a week and a half."

She sighed. "I suppose that makes you eligible for a reprieve, then," Erza generously offered.

He smiled. "Good," he said, reaching forward to place a soft kiss on her lips and then doing the same to the top of his son's head. "Because I really do love my Christmas gift this year."

**A/N: Advanced New Year's resolution: must name this poor Jerza child once and for all some time in 2015! There's only so much circling one can do around the matter. **

**Anyway, what did you think of the chapter? Hope you had a great boxing day if you're into that!**


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